"Feminismus und Volkertod"? Women's emancipation, cultural criticism and birth decline in the discursive field of German eugenics and racial hygiene

Conservative racial hygienists rejected women's emancipation primarily because of a supposed connection with the decline in the birth rate. However, the German eugenics movement in the early 20th century was not limited to the conservative or even "volkisch" milieu. Rather, it was capable of connecting to the entire political spectrum. The question therefore arises as to which interpretations existed within the eugenic and racial-hygienic discourses to judge women's emancipation. Which cultural-critical topoi were present in them? Answers to these questions emerge from a discourse analysis based on three journals that were of central importance for the eugenics discourse in the German Empire. The sources are supplemented by the standard works of the journal editors. The main part of the paper contains an analysis of the statements made in the sources that relate to women's emancipation. The problematisations occurring in the texts examined are shown, which determined the way in which German racial hygienists and eugenicists perceived women's emancipation and the women's movement. The analysed problematisations make it possible to reconstruct two virulent patterns in the German eugenics movement in which judgements about modern cultural and social development were linked to women's emancipation. The patterns could be reproduced in different ways depending on the political attitude.